Norwich's Five Historic Markers (and One Nerdy Vermont Factoid)

There are 5 Roadside Historic Markers in Norwich according to the official state site that keeps track of those things. Four (Alden Partridge, Town of Norwich, Theta Chi Fraternity, First Public Grammar School) stand in the village. The fifth is in the park near Ledyard Bridge. That one, pictured above reads,—Site of a log hut where the Hutchinson and Messenger Families were the first to winter in Norwich in 1765. Erected by the Norwich Historical Society in memory of Professor Allen Rich Foley, Vermont Legislator and Historian 1898-1978.

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Here's the nerdy factoid: Not all the 243 markers maintained by the Vermont Department of Historic Preservation are in Vermont. One is in Middletown, Virginia.

The Virginia plaque reads: "Vermont soldiers played an important role in the Union Victory at Cedar Creek. In a desperate stand made to slow the early morning onslaught of confederate Jubal Early’s army, the Eighth Vermont Regiment lost 110 of its 164 men engaged. The First Vermont Brigade held the central position in the mid-morning stand that finally brought Early’s attack to a halt. the battered Eighth Vermont was the first Union regiment to break the Confederate line in the afternoon Union counterattack. In that attack the First Vermont Cavalry captured 23 cannon and three battle flags."

The plaque doesn't mention a final sobering fact. The First Vermont brigade "suffered the highest casualty count of any brigade in the history of the United States Armywith some 1,172 killed in action," says Wikipedia.